


Protect What You Love

by Mockingjay468



Series: Silver Twins, Red Lovers [2]
Category: The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Amosgarn Goes Into Fretful Mum Mode, Because They Don't Know The Strange Couple They Met In The Woods As Well As They Thought, Beta'd, But Only if you squint really hard - Freeform, Canon-Typical Violence, Caranthir Is Trying, Chase Scene In Abnormally Long Grass, Could Be Canon, Even Herself, Gen, Half-Elves, I suppose, In Which We Twist Canon Into a Pretzel, Other Half-Elves Than In Canon, The Beginnings Of Found Family, The Twins Are Confused, Wolves, and confuses everyone, eldritch peredhil
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:07:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,144
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28322106
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mockingjay468/pseuds/Mockingjay468
Summary: With a cheery smile, Amosgarn came to sit nearer to them.“So my dears, how about we do some Silvan practise?”Eluréd slumped down. “No! It hurts my head!”“Come on ‘Red.” Elurín poked him in the side and Eluréd jerked away, muffling a laugh.Eluréd was quite happy in his new life (so long as he didn't think too hard on the old) but the world outside the forest of Doriath was hard and brought about a change in him he is not quite ready for.
Relationships: Caranthir | Morifinwë & Eluréd, Caranthir | Morifinwë/Caranthir's Wife, Caranthir's Wife & Eluréd, Eluréd & Elurín (Tolkien), implied Caranthir | Morifinwë/Caranthir's Wife/Haleth of the Haladin
Series: Silver Twins, Red Lovers [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2078715
Comments: 4
Kudos: 9





	Protect What You Love

**Author's Note:**

> Hello all!  
> New story, two days after the first - yay! I'm on a roll!  
> A big Thank You once more to my Beta reader [oliviacat3](https://archiveofourown.org/users/oliviacat3/pseuds/oliviacat3) who is wonderful at spotting my errors.  
> And I hope you all enjoy!

Eluréd was unsure entirely what to think of their new companions.

They were nice enough: Amosgarn broke into a brilliant grin at the slightest ray of positivity and it took very little to get her chatting, and Caranthir, if not openly _kind_ , was pleasant enough and made delicious stew.

Four days after they had first met, they finally broke the edge of the forest and made it out into the plains of East Beleriand. They had, at first, skirted around the edges of Doriath, turning southwards.

“To the north,” Caranthir explained, “is the enemy. And with the little shelter the plains provide us, we don’t want to be found by orcs.”

“No fires then?” Elurín had asked quietly and Caranthir had nodded.

“No fires.”

That had been nearly three months ago and Eluréd could feel Caranthir and Amosgarn getting antsy the longer they were out in the open.

 _I suppose they don’t like being away from the forest_. Eluréd reasoned one night to his brother and Elurín had nodded.

 _They_ are _wood-elves._

Caranthir stood up for the sixth time since they had made camp and walked out into the long grass once more. Amosgarn looked at where he had disappeared unblinkingly until he reappeared and she relaxed once more.

With a cheery smile, Amosgarn came to sit nearer to them.

“So my dears, how about we do some Silvan practise?”

Eluréd slumped down. “No! It hurts my head!”

“Come on ‘Red.” Elurín poked him in the side and Eluréd jerked away, muffling a laugh. “We’ve gotta know _some_ words if we’re going to live-”

“Shh.”

Elurín fell silent as Caranthir stood up, his ears pricked for noise. Amosgarn too had gone quiet, rising silently to a crouch, her usually cheerful expression in deep concentration. Eluréd sat up from where he had thrown himself down.

He listened too.

He could hear wind in the grass, the breathing of Elurín beside him, the chirping of crickets-

No, he _couldn’t_ hear the chirping of crickets. Nor the sound of birds or any small creature.

“Where are they coming from?” Amosgarn muttered, darting her eyes around the surrounding grass which towered over even Caranthir, who was on the tall side for an elf.

“I don’t know.”

He muttered something in another language – beyond the Silvan and Sindarin Eluréd had noticed that Amosgarn and Caranthir spoke a host of other languages and when speaking together, they quite often slipped out of Sindarin into one of them.

Caranthir looked over at his wife, his forehead creased in concern. “You go that way, I’ll go this.” He turned to Eluréd and his brother. “We’ll be back in moment, OK?”

They nodded.

“Be quiet, be still and, if you’re found, scream as loud as you can, OK?”

They nodded again.

Elurín took a hold of Eluréd’s hand as they watched the pair of them disappear into the long grass.

 _Do you think it’s the monsters?_ He asked timidly through their bond.

_I think so. What else would be hunting us?_

_Their own monsters?_

_Do they have their own monsters?_

_We don’t, not really – it’s Ada and Nana’s monsters who are chasing us._

They sat in silence after that as if their thoughts could summon the monsters they talked of, their hands tightly holding onto the other.

Eluréd perked up his ears as the rustling of the grass got louder – louder than it was in the wind. A moment later Amosgarn burst through the line of grass.

There was no smile on her face.

“Come on. We need to pack up. Quickly.”

While it was still cold, there had been no snow on the fields for the last few weeks as winter neared its end and it had got a bit warmer. So, thankfully, Caranthir and Amosgarn had decided to unpack fewer blankets than they did usually and without a fire, they packed dup camp in what Eluréd hoped was record time.

Caranthir appeared at one point and took his pack from his wife. He turned to go again but something stopped him.

“‘Red, ‘Rin,” He came to crouch beside them, drawing something from his pack. “I want you to have these.” He gave them a very serious look. “You _only_ use them if you absolutely have to, understand?”

Eluréd nodded and felt his twin do the same beside them.

“OK. Here you go.” He passed them both identical daggers, about the same length as Eluréd’s forearm. “Only if you need to.” And with that warning, he vanished back into the grass.

“Are you ready boys?” Amosgarn asked, after she helped them tuck the knives into the belt of their robes.

They nodded.

She took Eluréd’s right hand and Elurín’s left and, with no further words, pulled them off into the long grass.

It was disconcerting being unable to see and Amosgarn was running fast. It was difficult to get his bearings.

He focused instead on Amosgarn’s hand in his; the steady pound of his heart in his head and his feet on the ground, and the blood rushing in his ears; his breath coming out in short, sharp bursts.

His foot caught something on the floor and his hand was tugged from Amosgarn’s. He went flying headfirst into the long grass and slid someway across the ground, grazing his hands and knees, undoubtedly wearing through his leggings.

It stung and tears welled up in his eyes, but Eluréd blinked them away.

He couldn’t cry.

He had to find Amosgarn or Caranthir.

He opened his mouth to call out Amosgarn’s name but stopped as he remembered Caranthir’s warning.

 _Be quiet. Right_. He thought to himself. _Then I shall have to find them by myself_.

He fumbled at his belt and pulled out the dagger stowed there. Feeling far safer with the blade in his hand to protect him from the monsters, should they discover his whereabouts, he began to walk purposefully through the grass, pushing the long blades away with one hand and holding the knife tightly in the other.

He stopped suddenly, his ears picking up on a rustling that wasn’t caused by him.

He gripped the knife tighter, barely daring to breath as the rustling got closer and closer and-

Eluréd relaxed as a pair of mice came running past, skittering over his feet and back into the grass on the other side.

 _I’m OK_. He thought to himself, taking a deep breath and ploughing onward. _Just keep going forward and I’ll get out of the grass eventually. Then it will be easier to find Amosgarn and Caranthir._

 _Eluréd!_ A voice exclaimed in his head. _Where are you? You’ve disappeared!_

 _It’s OK Elurín_. Eluréd replied, stopping again so as to concentrate on comforting Elurín. _I’m-_

 _Amosgarn says you need to yell so that she can find you_. Elurín sounded more desperate and anxious than Eluréd had heard him before. _And don’t move from where you are now. And don’t be scared._

 _I’m not scared._ But Eluréd stopped all the same and yelled Amosgarn’s name as loud as possible.

There was a moment of peace before the rustling started up again.

“Amosgarn?”

 _Eluréd, did you yell? We couldn’t hear you_.

_Yes! Yes I did! There’s someone near, but it can’t be-_

He stopped thinking. There was a growl nearby and Eluréd held his knife to the point of turning his knuckles snowy white. He pricked up his ears, felt the every touch of paws against the ground, every stroke of grass against fur coats.

He could feel the wolves before he saw them.

They embedded themselves in his mind as he reached out with every sense. They were creeping around him, four of them circling around, getting closer and closer in.

His mind had gone blank with fear, he didn’t know what to do, had forgotten all of his parents’ warnings and lessons.

He was going to die.

“Eluréd!”

He could feel the wolves attention turn.

 _Caranthir_. He thought thankfully as the wolves bounded away. A moment later, his eyes widened in realisation – they weren’t just running away from _him_ , they were running _to_ Caranthir.

“No,” He exclaimed but the wolves didn’t change their target again. “No!”

Just as he did before, he reached out. He could feel the wolves prowling and he could feel Caranthir and the steel of his sword and the determination in his mind and the adrenaline in the wolves and they were going to pounce and _Caranthir couldn’t kill all of them at once-_

* * *

He was aware of screaming – his own, he thought belatedly, as he stepped out of his own body.

Eluréd was numb to the world, a sudden diminishing of all his senses after reaching out so far, and watched himself contort into something else.

 _A wolf?_ He thought while he was pulled along behind himself as his new body tore through the grass. _A big one, I suppose._

With a detached sort of curiosity he watched himself barrel into one of the nearest wolves and tear their throat out with his teeth. His wolf-self spun around, slashed another of the wolves over the muzzle with his claws and pushed him down to step on their neck.

It broke with a sickening crunch.

The third wolf backed down when Eluréd’s wolf-self turned on him growling. One snap of his blood-soaked maw was enough to cause the smaller wolf to whimper and flee with her tail between her legs.

Wolf-self turned again, this time in the direction of Caranthir and the last wolf, fighting between themselves in a small glade in the grass, trodden down by the battle. He barked and leapt at the wolf, narrowly dodging Caranthir’s blade as he pushed the wolf to the ground.

There was a small scuffle, too quick for Eluréd’s dull senses to make sense of, which ended with the wild wolf running off into the grass, blood running from its wounds.

Eluréd watched his wolf-self stand panting and then collapse on the ground and he was drawn back to his body.

+++++

It hurt _so much_.

Every facet of his being burned, as if he were being torn apart, limb from limb, or someone was slowing cooking him alive. He scrunched his eyes closed, could taste blood in his mouth, curled himself up as much as he could, and-

As quickly as it began, it stopped.

Eluréd lay panting on the ground, hugging himself tightly.

“Eluréd!” Caranthir exclaimed.

The sound burned his ears, throbbing in his head, and it was the last straw. He began sobbing, hot tears trickling down his face.

“Oh baby.” The whispered tone was better – nicer to his ears. Caranthir very gently pulled him over onto his back and wrapped him up in his cloak.

Through blurry vision, Eluréd could see the concern in Caranthir’s shining eyes.

“What was that all about now, hey?” Caranthir asked, more gently than Eluréd could remember him being. Something very gently began to rub at his face and lips.

“Don’t know,” He whispered. “Was worried.”

“About me?” The rubbing stopped and instead the cloak was pulled tighter around him.

“Yes,” Eluréd admitted with some difficulty.

Caranthir stroked his cheek gently. “I can protect myself you know. I’ve fought far worse than wolves.”

“There were four.” Eluréd tried to sit up so he could make his point more effusively but his body refused to do as he wanted it to.

“I know.” He pushed a piece of hair behind Eluréd’s ear. “Can I pick you up baby?” Caranthir waited for Eluréd to nod before ever so carefully lifting him up into his arms and balancing him very carefully on his hip. “You can go to sleep if you want.”

Sleep sounded nice.

* * *

Eluréd woke up wrapped in a blanket on an unfamiliar bed in an unfamiliar room.

He blinked his eyes open blearily and squinted as the sunlight pouring into the room through a crack in the shutters fell over his face. He pushed himself up and out of the way of the offending ray of light.

“You’re awake!” Elurín threw himself into his brothers arms and squeezed him tightly. “I was so worried Eluréd!”

Eluréd patted Elurín’s back comfortingly. “It’s alright ‘Rin, I’m OK now.”

Elurín pulled back, kneeling on the bed beside him. “It was really scary. You had blood all over your face and you weren’t awake and Caranthir looked _scared_. What happened? No one will tell me.”

“I-I don’t know.” Eluréd scrunched his face in thought. “It’s all really blurry. I think there were wolves and I think Caranthir defeated them?” He shook his head gently. “But I’m alright and that’s what really matters.”

Elurín nodded although he didn’t look very convinced. “I suppose so…”

There was a knock on the door. “Elurín, can I come in?” Amosgarn asked. “I have tea and a bite to eat.”

“Of course!” Elurín called back, climbing over his brother to sit more comfortably beside him.

The door was pushed open and Amosgarn came in, carefully balancing a wooden tray in her hands. Her eyes widened minutely as she saw Eluréd and she hurriedly placed the tray on a nearby cabinet, skirting around Elurín’s abandoned chair to perch on the edge of the bed.

“How are you feeling Sweetie?” She asked, gently placing a hand on his forehead.

“I’m alright,” He replied cheerily and grinned up at her. Amosgarn’s smile was slightly gentler than usual when she returned the favour, dropping her hand again.

“You don’t seem to have a temperature any more – that’s good. Is there anything I can get you? Tea? Something to eat?”

Eluréd thought about this for a moment. “I’m hungry. Something to eat would be nice.”

“Then something to eat it shall be. And I’ll bring you some water as well, it’ll be good for you to be well hydrated.” She leaned forward and kissed him gently on the forehead before getting up and crossing to the door.

Halfway there, her steps stuttered and almost stopped but they restarted and she kept going until she was out the room.

 _Did she just kiss you?_ Elurín asked in astonishment.

Eluréd nodded blankly. _It was…it was like Nana did sometimes._

Faint agreement was sent across their bond.

It felt wrong to admit it, even to his brother with whom he shared everything, but the action in itself hadn’t felt strange. In fact, it had felt like a natural extension of…of something. Something like what he had had with Nana maybe? He didn’t want to think too hard on it – it seemed too much like betrayal.

The door was pushed open again to reveal an unfamiliar man with a short beard and a curly mop of hair. He too held a tray.

“Ah, Nana said you were awake.” He laid the tray on Eluréd’s lap and retrieved the other abandoned tray to lay on Elurín’s. “I bring you some bread and cheese and a cup of water.”

Eluréd stared at him in confusion, still reeling from Amosgarn’s strange action’s, making it quite difficult to focus on important things like manners, despite Nana’s voice chiding him in the back of his head to _stop gaping Eluréd, it’s not becoming of a prince!_

The man was unperturbed by Eluréd lack of social graces and gave him a startling familiar grin. “I haven’t introduced myself. I am Haldad Mahtafinwë, though you may call me Haldad.”

“Pleased to meet you,” Eluréd replied weakly as his brother jabbed him in his side.

Haldad turned his head to follow Eluréd line of sight. He narrowed his eyes. “Was it my mother? Did she do something inappropriate?”

“Your mother?” Elurín enquired softly. “I don’t think you introduced us.”

Haldad laughed. “No, no – I supposed they didn’t tell you. Amosgarn and Caranthir are two of my parents.”

“Amosgarn’s your mother?” Eluréd exclaimed, his mind now fully on the new topic at hand. At the same time Elurín asked: “Two of?”

Haldad swung the chair around and leant his arms on the back, straddling it the wrong way, grinning brightly all the while. “Aye, to both of you. I’m 135, if you would believe.”

They both shook their heads mutely. “Ma – my other mother, that is – was a Man, so I am a half elf, elvish in some ways and mannish in others.”

 _Like us!_ Elurín exclaimed across the bond he shared with Eluréd. _I thought Nana said we were the only ones._

“Nana said we were the only ones.” Eluréd looked expectedly at Haldad.

He blinked and then shrugged. “I don’t know why she may think that. I’ve met plenty of other half-elves.”

“If by plenty, you mean three – and I’m fairly certain two of those are through association with your sister.” Caranthir, disconcertingly not dressed in his usual browns and greys but in a soft cream and lilac, leant against the doorframe.

Haldad rolled his eyes. “Thank you Atya. But even if I haven’t met them, I’ve _heard_ of them.”

Caranthir slid into the room, stood for a moment in the middle of the floor as if unsure of what to do with himself, before perching on the bed where a moment ago Amosgarn had been.

“Are you alright?” He asked Eluréd. “I was worried for a moment.”

Eluréd nodded. “No fever anymore – Amosgarn checked. And you needn’t have been worried, you rescued me just fine.”

Caranthir, for some reason, looked guilty at this.

“I suppose so…”

Haldad muttered something in one of the unfamiliar languages Caranthir and Amosgarn were prone to and Caranthir looked up, replying sharply.

He stood and strode to the middle of the room. Haldad swung around on his chair. The pair of them had a very heated conversation which Eluréd and Elurín watched with baited breath, their eyes darting between the two, before Caranthir deflated.

He nodded softly at his son, smiled at the twins and wished them a good night and walked from the room.

Haldad turned back around and gave the pair of them an apologetic smile. “I’m sorry about that. Would you like me to take your trays?”

Eluréd looked down at his completely uneaten food as he stomach rumbled.

“I think we still need to start,” He said ruefully.

“That’s alright.” Haldad leant forward and ruffled his hair. “I’ll come back in a bit and take them then.” And he followed his father out the door.

Elurín exhaled slightly. Eluréd could feel his brother’s pent up anxiety deflate into the air around them.

“Were they like that before I woke up?” Eluréd asked curiously, pulling apart his bread with his fingers.

Elurín shrugged, biting off a bit of his own bread. _Not sure. I spent most of the time by your bedside._

Eluréd sighed, taking a sip of water. “I can’t believe they have a son.”

“And a daughter.”

“And a daughter.” Eluréd agreed.

“And another wife.”

“It’s like we don’t know them at all!”

**Author's Note:**

> Non-Canon Names:  
> Haldad - Watchdog (Halish)  
> Mahtafinwë - Fighting Finwë (It is more a joining of the names Mahtan and Finwë) (Quenya)
> 
> Quenya Translations:  
> Atya - Father (Informal)
> 
> Sindarin Translations:  
> Ada - Father (Informal)  
> Nana - Mother (Informal)


End file.
